Fall River school board OKs $97.2M budget

The School Committee voted 6-1 in a special meeting Thursday to approve a new spending plan based on a $97.25 million fiscal 2015 schools operating budget that was part of the overall municipal budget the City Council passed last month.

FALL RIVER — The School Committee voted 6-1 in a special meeting Thursday to approve a new spending plan based on a $97.25 million fiscal 2015 schools operating budget that was part of the overall municipal budget the City Council passed last month.

The vote was not made without reservations.

Vice Chairman Mark Costa, who cast the dissenting vote, said he couldn’t adopt the budget without assurances from city officials and the City Council that the shortfall in required net school spending incurred in fiscal 2014 would be made up in fiscal 2015.

“We’re still short a commitment on whether that gets addressed,” Costa said, adding that while city and school officials appear to be “on the same page” on the amount of that shortfall, he recalled that city administrator Cathy Ann Viveiros had previously cautioned the City Council against using the city’s certified free cash next fall to cover it.

The amount of the shortfall is projected to be around $3 million.

Most of it was the result of an overprojection of actual health care costs for fiscal 2014, and the remainder was incurred when student transportation cost exceeded the originally budgeted amount by $800,000.

Fall River Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Michael Saunders told the committee that the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education would certify the shortfall early in the fall, around the same time the state Department of Revenue will be certifying the city’s free cash and its tax rate.

After some questioning from Costa, Saunders said DESE officials can recommend to DOR that it not certify the tax rate if the net school spending shortfall is not made up.

Committee member Joseph Martins joined Costa in saying that he also wanted “some assurances” from city officials.

Addressing Mayor Will Flanagan, chairman of the School Committee, Martins asked whether “that will come to fruition. ... I don’t like maybe.”

Flanagan responded, “I don’t like games, Mr. Martins. We’re going to do what the law requires us to do. I will make a request to the council as the law requires us to do.”

Page 2 of 2 - The new spending plan based on the $97.25 million budget defers most of of the spending that would have occurred via a $2.4 million “additional services” budget, which was part of the $99.4 million operating budget the school committee had previously voted to support in May.

That plan sought to hire six more teachers in pre-kindergarten classrooms and 20 more paraprofessionals for kindergarten classrooms, to address large class sizes. It also sought 10 new interventionists and five new English as a second language teachers. The total salary for those positions would have been around $1.5 million. It also targeted several improvements, including network upgrades, phone system upgrades, new playgrounds at Henry Lord and Samuel Watson Elementary School. It would have also provided funding for the purchase of new textbooks and Google Chromebook laptop computers.

The committee’s vote defers most of the investment.

It still funds nine new paraprofessionals at $225,000, two of the three English as a second language teachers at $100,000, one interventionist for Henry Lord at $50,000, the two new playgrounds at $80,000 and three new custodians at Henry Lord.

Some large class size issues will be addressed, including fourth grade class sizes at Silvia Elementary School. That will be addresed by transfering that same position from Letourneau Elementary School, where classroom sizes are not as large, Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown explained.

If the net school spending shortfall is made up, those positions can be filled when funding becomes available.